Overview

After 40 years of silence and reflection comes a deeply personal and emotionally charged memoir of a woman's 18-month relationship with President John F. Kennedy when she was a college intern at the White House.

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This Book

Overview

After 40 years of silence and reflection comes a deeply personal and emotionally charged memoir of a woman's 18-month relationship with President John F. Kennedy when she was a college intern at the White House.

What People Are Saying

From the Publisher

“With the benefit of hindsight and good old-fashioned maturity, [Mimi Alford] writes not just about the secret, but the corrosive effect of keeping that secret. . . . You can’t help liking her, or her elegant and thoroughly good-natured book.”—The Spectator

“What [Alford] sacrificed in lucre she has more than recovered in credibility and dignity.”—The Washington Times

“Compelling . . . a polished voice telling a credible story you can take to the bank.”—Seattle Post-Intelligencer
“Explosive . . . searingly candid.”—New York Post

Editorial Reviews

From Barnes & Noble

Today Mimi Beardsley Alford is a retired church administrator. In the summer of 1962, Mimi Beardsley was a teenage intern beginning an internship in the White House press office. Within weeks, this tall, beautiful, impressionable woman had begun an affair with President John F. Kennedy, a link that was severed only by his November 1963 assassination. Until six years ago, when an investigator divulged the relationship, Mimi's great secret and sadness remained concealed. Even then, she only made a general acknowledgement of the liaison; it is only now that she writes candidly about this central relationship in her life. Once Upon a Secret recounts not just her presidential romance, but also the story of how she maintained silence, sometimes at great cost, about an affair that would have riveted the nation.

— Edward Ash-Milby

Kirkus Reviews

Kiss-and-tell memoir about the author's affair with President John F. Kennedy, beginning when she was a White House intern in 1962. Alford describes life as a debutante and the import her parents placed on The Social Register. In 1961, as a high-school senior at Miss Porter's School in Farmington, Conn., she attempted to set up an interview with one of the school's alumna, Jacqueline Kennedy, then the First Lady. Her request was declined, but she was nevertheless invited to visit the White House. There she was introduced to JFK, whose charisma struck her at once. The following year she was offered a summer internship in the White House press office. On her fourth day, Alford writes, she received a phone call from one of JFK's closest aides, Dave Powers, asking her to come for a swim in the White House pool. As she swam in a borrowed suit, the president appeared and asked to join her. That evening, the president offered the star-struck 19-year-old a personal tour of his residence and, in Mrs. Kennedy's bedroom, deflowered her. Alford is adamant that their sex was consensual, yet other aspects of their affair, which lasted from June 1962 to November 1963, bordered on brutish. The author describes two instances in which the president urged her to service other men sexually and another involving his insistence that she take amyl nitrite. Alford also discusses how she joined him on trips around the country, where they met for trysts in hotel rooms. The rest of the book is light on personal revelations and salacious details, but its subject alone should be enough to guarantee bestseller status. The first half, which unpacks her affair, is far more compelling than the second, which tracks the author's life after JFK's assassination. Voyeuristic and occasionally fascinating.

From the Publisher

“With the benefit of hindsight and good old-fashioned maturity, [Mimi Alford] writes not just about the secret, but the corrosive effect of keeping that secret. . . . You can’t help liking her, or her elegant and thoroughly good-natured book.”—The Spectator

“What [Alford] sacrificed in lucre she has more than recovered in credibility and dignity.”—The Washington Times

“Compelling . . . a polished voice telling a credible story you can take to the bank.”—Seattle Post-Intelligencer
“Explosive . . . searingly candid.”—New York Post

Meet the Author

Reading Group Guide

A Conversation with Mimi Alford

Random House Readers Circle: Before you were first outed by the press, you had already begun sharing your secret with your family and close friends. What inspired you to write this memoir and share your story with the whole world?

Mimi Alford: Before May 2003, only a handful of friends and two family members knew about my affair with the Presi- dent. As far as I know, all of them kept it a secret. They were doing what I had asked them to do. With the public outing, you might think that everything changed immediately, but it didn’t. People knew about the affair but no one talked about it. I didn’t talk about it either. In some ways I kept as silent as before. But it became clear that I needed to face it. I needed to understand how it had affected my life and informed my relationships with men. I couldn’t let go of it. It hung around like unfinished business. My happy marriage in 2005 gave me a newfound self-confidence, and along with that came the vision and hope that writing my story would help me to better understand the impact the affair had had on my life, and to unburden myself once and for all. It has.

RHRC: To what extent has the publication of Once Upon a Secret changed your daily life?

MA: I don’t think about this book every day, but when I do, I feel good that I took on the challenge of writing my story and that I didn’t give up along the way—which I’d considered a few times. If I’d caved in to weakness, I’d still be thinking of the book as something I have to write. Instead, I have the closure that I need. I have been surprised by the readers—women and men— who have written to me. Though they focus on different parts of my story, almost all of them express a feeling of connec- tion between their life experiences and mine—not a similarity, necessarily, but a human connection. I recently got a letter from a young woman who says she was very critical of my motives when the book first came out but when she saw it at a recent library sale, she decided to buy it anyway. She told me that, now that she has read the book, she un- derstands and admires me for writing it. And for that I am grateful. It’s good to have gratitude in your day. Sometimes something special happens, something I never would have expected. Last Friday—four months after the publication of my book—I took my car to be serviced at the Previously Loved Subaru dealership in nearby Canaan, Connecticut. When I picked it up early the next morning, the owner, Bill, dressed in his grease-stained friendly-mechanic’s overalls, came over to explain about the work that had been done on my car. As he handed me the keys, he stopped and looked straight at me with this thoughtful, gentle expression. He said, “Mimi, you have inspired me. Years ago I had some- thing important to face in my life, and for a long time I have wanted to write about it but have been unable to. I am ready to do it now. Thank you.” I drove back to Alford thinking,
My book has done something for someone else. That’s how my daily life has changed.
RHRC: By the time your book was published, most of your family already knew about the affair. In your memoir, though, we get to see all the good aspects of your relationship alongside the bad. Has coming out with the whole story changed the way that you and your family talk about the affair? Has it sparked any conversations with those close to you who may not have known the full story?
MA: “Family” is always a touchy area. It’s not easy to change the way family members communicate with each other about difficult things after so many years of doing it another way. But they’ve been uniformly supportive. Some feel sad because they had no idea of the pain I was in for so much of my adult life. Others now understand the source of that pain. So it’s opened eyes one way or another.

The big surprise has been how sharing my secret has inspired some family members to share theirs for the first time, like my older brother, Josh, who finally decided to tell me a most remarkable story: In the winter of 1987, Josh was out of work and in desperate financial straits. To make ends meet, he took a job driving a taxicab in Cambridge, Massa- chusetts. One night he picked up a fare in Lexington. After the man sat down in the backseat, Josh realized that he rec- ognized him, so he turned around and said, “Good evening, Mr. Powers.” To which Dave responded, “Do I know you?” Josh explained, “I am Mimi Beardsley’s brother. I met you in the White House in 1963 when I came to Washington to pick up my sister at work. You even introduced me to President Kennedy.” Dave paused for a few seconds, then said, “Oh, Mimi . . . oh, Mimi . . . oh, Mimi . . . When the Kennedys get their hooks into you, they never let go.”

Josh had kept this a secret from me because he was ashamed of driving a cab. But once he read the book, he finally understood what Dave Powers meant that night in 1987. The fact that he chose to tell me demonstrates the healing power of sharing secrets—and how it gets others to open up. But it helped me, too: The fact that, twenty-five years after my time in the White House, Dave Powers remembered me in the way he did confirmed to me that in writing my book, I was finally free of the Kennedy hooks.
RHRC: In a Washington Post article about your memoir, the historian Robert Dallek refers to the book as a valuable part of the JFK narrative not because it provides sordid details, but because it actually humanizes the President, who, as Dallek puts it, has become some kind of “rock star, a mythological figure—he’s no longer a real person.” Was this a side of the President that you hoped to bring out through your memoir?
MA: I’m not the first person to point out that JFK had many sides, and that he was very selective in what he let other peo- ple see. He was a master at compartmentalizing. The side I bring out is the only one I’m qualified to write about: the personal, non-public, after-hours JFK, the way he was with women. There’s been gossip and speculation about his wom- anizing, but I think what Dallek is commenting on is that I’m one of the few to share details. Some people have questioned my motives, but honestly, I have no desire to harm JFK or tarnish his memory, but nor do I need to protect him now.
RHRC: In your memoir, you write that you live now with a clear conscience, even though President Kennedy was a married man and a father. How did you come to terms with that aspect of your relationship?

MA: Who among us hasn’t struggled later in life to come to terms with things we did or didn’t do as a teenager? I was an innocent nineteen-year-old single young woman and the President was a forty-five-year-old married man and a father. But he was also the most powerful man in the world at the time. I think the imbalance in the relationship, though it doesn’t excuse my actions, makes it clear that the impetus for our relationship came from him. He was always in control. The idea that I would or could seduce the President of the United States is laughable. In writing my book, I tried to be honest and faithful to that nineteen-year-old as I remember her—and the truth is, I didn’t feel guilty about Mrs. Kennedy or her children at the time. I had some conflicts about my fam- ily and my growing relationship with my future husband during those eighteen months with JFK, but not about his family. That said, I can see why people want me to express regret or to apologize for my behavior. I got that reaction in spades when Barbara Walters tore into me on The View. I think she wanted to shame me for writing a story that could hurt her friend Caroline Kennedy, which seems absurd to me. Far more painful things have happened to the Kennedys than the publication of a book.
RHRC: Your first sexual encounter with the President—with any man—wasn’t quite a fairy-tale moment. How difficult was it for you to write that scene for this book? Were you ever tempted to sugarcoat events like that, or other ones?

MA: I wonder how many first-time sexual encounters actually are the fairy-tale moment a young woman imagines. I doubt there are many, or else we’d all be married to our first lovers. My intention in Once Upon a Secret was to be honest. It never occurred to me to sugarcoat that first episode or, for that matter, to enhance it into something more sexually steamy. Of course, the earliest reports about the book focused on the most salacious details, which set up some readers for disappointment. It’s not a sexy book. It’s about the power of secrets. As one reader, a man, wrote to me: “Some readers will find they’ve read a better book than they thought they had bought.”
RHRC: Were there any scenes you considered leaving out of your book entirely? What made you ultimately decide to include them in your story?
MA: I tried to write about what was most important to the story as a whole and what would give the reader the most complete picture of this relationship and my experience. It is true that I struggled with the unsavory scene with Dave Powers. I took it out of the manuscript several times but al- ways put it back in because I wanted to show how easily I slipped into submission. It was a question of needing to please someone who had such power over me. It is still a dif- ficult passage for me to read out loud. It makes me angry and sad at the same time.

RHRC: You often say that your time with President Kennedy had a profound impact on your life, even beyond the ramifi- cations of keeping your secret. How do you think your life would have been different if your time at the White House hadn’t included the affair?

MA: It’s easy to play the “what if ” game. But it’s not a good idea. First and foremost, I have to accept what the reality was and the context of the times in which my story took place. I can fantasize that without the affair and without the secret, I might have become a serious journalist. My internship might have been the start of a successful career—after all, I was smart and I was capable. I don’t know if that would have happened for me, but as one reader so aptly put it in her letter, “[At that time] women were not only meant to look up to the men in their lives but to be led by them if not dominated by their superior ideas. It was shameful to be different, or at least one was often ostracized for it. All of us kept secrets even if they were smaller, just to belong.”
RHRC: After your first husband, Tony, found out about your affair, he forbade you to talk about it, which had a huge impact on your relationship and, ultimately, played a role in ending it. How difficult was it to tell that part of the story honestly?
MA: I’m glad you asked this question. It was difficult to write about my marriage to Tony. We were married for twenty-five years, and in many ways our marriage never evolved into a wholesome, balanced relationship in which we both could flourish. Was my relationship with President Kennedy the only reason this happened? I don’t think so, but it certainly started us off on weak ground. It is uncomfortable to admit today that I was always fearful of Tony. I never wanted to make him angry. One friend told me that she feels desper- ately sad for both of us and the diminished life we had to- gether. But we did have two wonderful daughters, who have children of their own today, and for that I will always be grateful.

RHRC: Was it easier to write about your relationship with President Kennedy or your relationship with your first hus- band?
MA: Let me start by saying it was easiest to write about my relationship with my current husband, Dick. Maybe it’s just easier to write about something happy. We have a life to- gether that begins every morning with laughter. It doesn’t get better than that. As to your question: I had to put myself so far back in time while writing about the President that it wasn’t always easy to connect to the feelings I had as that nineteen-year- old. I spent a lot of time just trying to remember. I wanted to be as clear and honest as possible, and not shade those feel- ings with thoughts and opinions that could only come later, from a much older woman. One problem I encountered was that I didn’t have anyone to talk to who would have known me on the White House staff during those eighteen months. I think that’s why I felt such relief when I came across my name while doing research at the Kennedy Library. I remember saying to myself, I existed; I was there! I wasn’t invisible anymore.

Writing about my marriage to Tony presented dif- ferent problems. I was careful not to include details that would intentionally hurt my daughters. This was my story, not theirs—which they made very clear to me. During the twenty-five years of our marriage, Tony and I lived in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Jersey. We had a lot of friends. Sometimes friends sense that you are going through a tough time; sometimes they don’t. Sometimes they are just too busy with their own lives and they don’t want to know. I kept a lot to myself during the most difficult years, and I worried that my book would make some of those friends feel that they had been left out. They would be right, in a way. They didn’t know me completely because I didn’t let them. I feel closer to many of them today. It’s a wonderful relief.
RHRC: One of the recurring themes in your memoir is that secrets drag us down, and that we can’t truly come to terms with them until we learn to share them. Has your experience sharing your story inspired any others to share theirs?

MA: Absolutely. Secrets separate you, make it easy to with- draw and disconnect. I’ve filled two three-ring binders al- ready with letters from readers, and nearly all of them focus on keeping secrets. These letters are from both women and men. I emphasize this because some people feel that my book is just a “woman’s book.” It’s not true. One man thanked me for encouraging him to have a more open, loving marriage. The recurring theme in all these letters is that my story deserved to be told, and by telling it, I helped many people feel empowered to share their own. But once the story was out there, it belonged to the read- ers as much if not more than it belonged to me. When I was in New York a couple of days after Once Upon a Secret came out, I was walking across Central Park. At the 81st Street entrance on the West Side, I saw a young woman sitting on a bench, reading my book. For a split second I was tempted to stand over her and, when she looked up, ask if she was enjoying the book. I wanted to see the look on her face when she recognized me. But that vanity disappeared quickly. I realized that I didn’t need the recognition. I didn’t need to hear her say “Omigod, it’s you!” or something like that. She didn’t need me interrupting her private experience of reading the book. It was her book now, not mine. The liberation and release that I received simply from telling my story and telling it honestly was enough for me. Anything else, I could let go.

1. The beginning of Mimi’s relationship with the President was hardly fairy-tale. In your opinion, was there anything Mimi could have done to change this? In what ways did this beginning influence the dynamic of their entire relationship?

2. Mimi admits that while she was comfortable around the President, there was always going to be an imbalance of power in their relationship, and that, in fact, she never called him anything but “Mr. President.” Do you think that Mimi would have been able to overcome this imbalance if she had desired? How do you think it might have changed her relationship to the President?

3. On several occasions during their relationship the President coerced Mimi into performing acts that she was uncom- fortable with, such as taking amyl nitrate at a party. Mimi attributes this to the President’s desire to assert his power over her. In what other, less harmful ways did the President assert that same power throughout the course of their relationship?

4. In one of those instances, Mimi refused the President’s request, and the matter was dropped. What do you think the outcome would have been had Mimi refused the President on the other occasions as well? Does Mimi seem to take responsibility for her part in these events, or does she seem to view them as having been beyond her control?

5. Mimi talks about Dave Powers with nothing but affection, and often Powers was the one who provided emotional support for Mimi while she was with the President. Do you think that Powers had an obligation to protect Mimi, or was it simply his responsibility to do everything he could for the President?

6. When Mimi first told the President about Tony, she de- scribed him as being, on paper, “a perfect match.” In what ways do you think Mimi’s relationship with JFK might have impacted the sort of man she would consider to be a perfect match for herself?

7. Do you think that Mimi’s interpretation of the President as intentionally winding down the affair is correct? What might have motivated him to do this?

8. What do you think of Tony’s reaction to Mimi’s revelation about her affair? In what ways did Tony’s reaction and Mimi’s acceptance set the tone for the rest of their relationship together?

9. Do you think Tony might have reacted differently if Mimi had told him about the affair earlier in their relationship? What might have changed?

10. In what ways did Tony’s instruction that Mimi never share her secret with anyone else liberate her, as she describes it? In what ways did it imprison her?

11. Neither Mimi’s relationship with Tony nor her relation- ship with the President was as emotionally healthy as the relationship she found with her current husband. In what ways were those early relationships similar? In what ways did they differ?

12. When Mimi finally shared her secret with her cousin Joan, she seemed unsure if she would “ever have the nerve” to talk to anyone else, despite how much better it made her feel. What do you think might account for this?

13. At several points in the book, Mimi describes the act of revealing her secret—to friends, to family, and even having it exposed by the media—as being liberating. In your experience, has keeping secrets had a negative impact on your life? Has sharing them been as freeing as Mimi describes?

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Interesting story

While I found this story at times disturbing, I found it still believable. For anyone who has been swept up in a relationship (business, friendship, or love) with an individual who has immense power, they will understand this book. I've seen a few cruel reviews on other sites about Mimi and how she was naive, has no self confidence, or needs to just get over this and move on. First, she was a nineteen year old in the 1960's, a completely different era. Second, anyone who thinks they could just easily "get over" or move on from a affair with such a powerful figure is full of it. For those who know the complexities of the human mind and heart, it's completely understandable how something like this would change someone's life, especially years later as you mature and realize some of the things that happened in the past. Looking back in our youth, there are a lot of moments we just didn't understand or had to learn from. I truly believe Mimi when she says this is just a book she had to write to fully reveal the true story she kept a secret for so long. As an older, more mature woman, she reveals a number of her feelings in the book, to fully admitting how she was naive and had a lack of understanding in her youth. But she also began to grow from the experience, until she did gain confidence and the belief in herself to be the woman she is today.

105 out of 113 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted February 9, 2012

Abuse of political position

What starts out as an adventure of a lifetime for a innocent girl quickly turns into an ugly abusive show of political power by the President of the United States. How could young Mimi stop the sexual advances of the most powerful man in the world; the answer, she could not and he knew it.Sending his friend to lure her into the abusive web of the Kennedy lair, Mimi felt she was doing no wrong. She cannot be held responsible for her acts because she was a mere child and the President knew it.Facinating reading into the background of the abuse of political power.

35 out of 43 people found this review helpful.

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ElliottW

Posted February 10, 2012

Enjoyable read about an emotional journey

When I first heard about this book my first thought was why now.. But as I heard a bit more of the story it was quite intringuing and needed to be "owned" by Mrs. Alford. The 60's were a very different time and if we want to be real, it isn't hard to imagine in that time a naive (sexually and otherways) girl being swept up in the romance of Camelot. A powerful handsome charasmatic man, a naive young woman, not a stretch.. I found many aspects of the relationship abusive, the sexual dares in particular. However, I'd like to believe that Kennedy did actually care for her, that she was more than a presidential sex toy. I also found Dave Powers role to be more than a little distasteful, but I guess that is the "fixer's" job.. All-in-all I would say this book is less about Kennedy and more about empowerment and self-discover of Mrs. Alford, how you can overcome the decisions of your past and own your future.

34 out of 40 people found this review helpful.

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Ccobx

Posted February 11, 2012

Waste of money and time

She should not profit from her lack of morals and ethics. He may have started the affair, she continued it, time and time again. While knowing he was married . And now again NO consideration of Caroline and her children. If Mimi needs to talk to free herself from the burdens of her continuous actions, talk to a therapist behind closed doors. She continues to hurt others with no consideration, this book is a waste of time and good money. President Kennedy is a fool for starting the affair, she is despicable for continuing it! This book is a waste of my time and money.

24 out of 99 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted February 10, 2012

Don't listen to Barbera Walters

Before reading this book I heard all the interviews cutting down the author for writing this book, and why now. I found this read less about the Kennedys and more about the development of a person. Yes, there are a few paragraphs of detailed information, but it is part of her story and why she is who she is today.

23 out of 26 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted February 11, 2012

Wonderful

I purchased this book on a whim. I don't gravitate towards biographies, and while I am intrigued with history, I cannot claim I am a fanatic. That said, this is a beautiful book that I could not put down. I read it in a matter of hours. It is insightful and provocative.

22 out of 24 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted February 9, 2012

Great read

A quick and easy read. I enjoyed it very much. Thank you Mimi for your honesty and openess.

17 out of 22 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted February 8, 2012

I Also Recommend:

my affair with the president

young mimi alford was very excited at the prospect of working as an intern in the white house and got to meet president kennedy who later took a more thean work intrest in her he begain a 18 year long affair with this 17 year old by first seducing her in jackies bedroom . this is very hard to put down the young intern also gives some details about the asasination great gift idea.

17 out of 29 people found this review helpful.

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JamesTorriani

Posted February 16, 2012

Very Moving Story

This is one of the most moving stories I have ever read. While the media has focused on the sexual aspects of the story, I found the effects on Ms. Alford's life the most moving. She entered her first marriage while still grieving. Her first marriage was destroyed. The effect of this secret on her life. From an historical point of view how this could have gone on in view of the press, and customs before the era of sex harresment law suits(Though this clearly is a love story) I agree with other comments about Barbara Walters behavior. What journalist kills a story because it is seen as critical of her friend's father.

12 out of 15 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted February 9, 2012

Excellent read ....

This was an excellent book and interesting story. I was not disappointed.

12 out of 16 people found this review helpful.

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Vintagefranchesca

Posted March 1, 2012

History, no Heart......

My Mother had adored the Kennedy's all her life as she was Irish and proud that they became so prominent & powerful in an era that Irish-Catholics were scorned as drunkards, deadbeats, and n'er-do-wells. I just don't think she fully realized that like many rich and powerful families, they didn't get to the top honestly. We now know patriarch JP Kennedy was not really a great businessman, he was an opportunist, who made his money on the backs of the unfortunate and taught his family to do the same. His ancestors still believe themselves to be above all reproach when they bear the Kennedy name, just read the internet news today about one of the newest escapades of a grandson. As I now have a bad image of the Kennedy's in general, I'm not sure why I bought this Nook Book. Curiosity? History? Who knows. I can tell you though, when I finished it, I felt very empty and a bit depressed. I'm not sure why Mimi Alford really wrote this book. Supposedly to set the story straight? Well, I hope she somehow got some closure or at least plenty of money as it's really not much of a story and I don't honestly know why she would want to tell it... A young girl loses her virginity to an older man kind of as a 'sexual waitress' no affection, no kisses, no love, no sugar with that. And she continues the relationship as if she were a call girl, with Dave powers playing the role of a pimp. I feel bad for her that she was so used and allowed herself to be. And Kennedy? He was taught people, especially women, were disposable, and I guess never managed to develop any non-narcissistic thoughts on the subject. When I began the book I think I was hoping for a somehow "good" reason this affair occurred. Possibly it had a purpose, an emotion. Frankly, I saw none.

9 out of 11 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted February 19, 2012

Really?

Very easy to write fiction when everyone else is long gone. Just another person making money. After so many years memories change to what we want. Save your money not a good read.

8 out of 35 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted April 3, 2012

Great Book

Very interesting. It was a real page turner for me, from start to end!

5 out of 7 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted February 18, 2012

Ehhhhh

This book is ok. If you are wondering between this book and another book. Get the other book. It is only kinda good (like a really long People magazine/Inquirer article kinda good)up until the death of JFK. Then it is like....blah blah blah blah blah. Just skipped all the way to the end after that. Sorry Mimi. I felt like I kinda wasted my money. She still seemed to be making excuses for JFK. He was an oversexed guy that ended up in the White House. Didn't live during that time. Was interested in what she had to say. It was just ok.

5 out of 10 people found this review helpful.

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RIRN56

Posted February 11, 2012

Good read!!!!

Easy, enjoyable read! Kennedy took advantage of a young woman, and used her sexually. I truly believe she was a victim. Fascinating read! Loved it!

5 out of 7 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted April 5, 2012

Person

I hate book

4 out of 13 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted March 16, 2012

Eye-opener!

My thoughts go out to the author. I understand it may have been the time and setting of that decade, but I am overwhelmed and taken back that a man (especially the president) would treat a woman that way.

My opinion of JFK is forever changed. I appreciate the book for its clarity and the author for her honesty. Obviously I will continue to see JFK as a great president. His contributions to this country are forever appreciated, but his flaws as a man are noteable

A great read that I will recommend again and again!

4 out of 6 people found this review helpful.

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Excellent Read

At first, I thought it difficult to believe that someone could or would wait decades before they wrote about an experience that was very personal to them. In reading this book I began to understand her personal relationship with President Kennedy. We can all judge that this affair was based on power, charisma or youth; however, Ms Alford is truly the only person that could write her feelings and emotions as to how it happened. She did a great job!

4 out of 5 people found this review helpful.

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artladyRDP

Posted February 18, 2012

...upon a secret

Yes, this is a story about Mimi's affair with John F. Kennedy, but it also an intriguing journey of her time as a young woman working as an intern inside the white house. Moreover, it is a coming of age story, albeit a late one and follows Alford all through the very long road that eventually took her back to the center of her own voice, her own strength and her self. If you've seen the Meredith Vieira interview then you've seen the more explicit sections of the book. Other than the logistics of carrying on such an affair with the President of the United States, what I will best remember about the book is Mimi herself. This book will particularly resonate with women who have been mis-used by poor alliances and resurrected themselves from the mire. This is a good read, and a quick one.

4 out of 7 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted February 13, 2012

Booknook

Very believeable. Very insightful. If you lived during this time you will like this.

4 out of 5 people found this review helpful.

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